New Additions and Updates

Pictured above are my newest additons, Willow and Fiona:

Well, it's been an extremely busy week but had a great time at Dill's -A Little Goat Farm in Chelsea, Oklahoma. Ellen Dorsey took a couple of hours out of her busy schedule to show us all her healthy, beautiful goats and share her philosphies on herd management. I brought home Willow and would have loved to taken more but need to see if my reservations are met first.

Marge Kitchen did a great job with the Beginner's Cheesemaking Class. I met Debbie Newsam there and we got lots of tips for making cheese. We made Chevre, Ricotta, and Mozzarella, as well as some awesome goat's milk fudge! No need for supper by the time we were done.

Below are new photos of our completed cattle waterers. It was a lot bigger project than we initially anticipated but well worth it.

Sustenance for the Family

Joe got a nice eight-point buck this afternoon. It will soon be polish, jerky, and venison sticks. Yummy! I'm still tired from my trip to the Goat Breeder's Conference in St. Paul yesterday and have to get on the road to Chelsea, Oklahoma early tomorrow so will write more after I get back.

Fall/Winter Projects

Well, it's been a while. Don't know where the time goes. I'm almost done with hoof trimming and the pens and barns have all been cleaned. Breedings are in full swing and I am looking forward to attending the Minnesota Dairy Goat Association's Annual Goat Breeder's Conference on November 7th as well as their Cheese-making Clinic on the 14th. Both should be great fun! The Cheese-making Clinic will be held at the Poplar Hill Dairy Goat Farm. They are Minnesota's oldest Grade A goat dairy. My friend Debbie Newsam will be meeting me there. Hopefully, we will have time for a quick tour either before or after our class. I have been making yogurt from my goat's milk and cow's milk. Both are just wonderful although I think I prefer the goat's milk yogurt just a tad more. I have also made mozzarella and soft cheese but I need a little more practice with those yet to get consistent results. The goat's are dried off now so I will just have the cow's milk to play with although I did freeze some goat's milk to make soap this winter.

I am also making a trip to Chelsea, Oklahoma this month. I am picking up a bred doe that has some genetics I am very interested in. I will post photos when I get her home.

Our Ritchie automatic waterers for the cattle and dairy cows are almost complete. They will sure take a big chunk of manual labor out of our work load. Much thanks to our friends Dave, Nate, Nate Jr., and Robin for taking on the job.

Shown above is our Guernsey milk cow, Lilly, with her heifer calf, Buttercup, who was born on 9/11/09. The photo below was taken just 3 days later. She's helping Joe train Lilly to the milk stand!

The Rainbow Bridge

Friday, July 10th, 2009 was a very sad day for our family. Our oldest pug, Tess, 10+ years old, unexpectedly passed away. Our vets at Northland Animal Hospital and the Emergency Vet Service in Duluth did their best to save her but I guess her time had come. She will be greatly missed by us, as well as her pug buddies Tito, Tara, Toby, and Tootsie. Tess is the fawn pug in the foreground.

Drake, Lilly, & Tiny

Drake thinks our new milk cow is just peachy and can hardly wait until she calves in a couple of months.

Drake took a real shine to our new kittens. He is loving up Tiny in the photo above. Puff was too busy chasing mice to pose for a photo.

Long Overdue Updates

This is our newest addition Lilly. She is a registered Guernsey heifer and is bred to a registered Guernsey bull for an August calving. We were very fortunate to be able to purchase her from Oliver Swanson, shown with Lilly in the above photo. We looked a long time for the perfect cow to be our future family milk cow and then we found her! Oliver did a fantastic job raising her up as his 4H project and she is a dream to handle. Thank you Oliver!

We are always pleased to get photos of goats we have sold after they go to their new homes. As you can tell by the photos above, Aria's wethers, Milo and Henry, have a wonderful loving home with the Tanski family.

New Bull

This is the new Limousin bull Joe picked out. What a handsome guy! I think Joe is going to Wisconsin to pick him up sometime soon so he has a chance to work with him a bit before breeding season.

Kidding & Calving Begins!

Well, I am so very glad I was wrong about Velvet. She kidded yesterday with a single gorgeous buck kid. He's gold chamoisee with light brown markings and a white spot on his poll. The heat lamp distorts the color a little. He is lighter than he appears in this photo. I will try to get a better photo tomorrow.

We had another surprise on Valentine's Day. My husband went out to the wintering corral to show someone the cows and found a newborn calf! Oops! We normally don't have any calves until mid-March. Anyway, the big red bull calf has been moved into the barn and is doing just fine.

Maternity Watch

Well, I was so disappointed to find Feisty back in heat again when I visited the barn this morning. Arghh! I was so hoping Shazam had bred her last month even though I didn't witness the breeding. Makes me wonder if Red Velvet is bred. She should be due next month but isn't very big. The vet tried to ultrasound her a month ago but she had never ultrasounded a goat before and couldn't tell me either way. I am debating removing Shazam from the pen, waiting a couple of weeks and then putting Feisty, Xplicit, and Velvet in with Megapixel. I will have to check the pedigrees to see if that would work. Anyway, I guess having my kids spread out from spring to fall wouldn't be such a bad idea.

On a brighter note, I'd like to share a couple of wonderful Holiday photos I received from my good friend Kristin at Babel Brook Acres.

I can't believe Kristin got Spark and Angelina to keep the antlers on!!!